Big Lie Elections

These elections are a sham. Every candidate proclaims they will stand up to Trump, reduce dependency on the U.S., protect jobs and the economy, defend supply management and so on. The truth is that whoever wins, Canada will receive a huge slap from the U.S., and the Canadian rulers will make the working class pay for it. This is already the case with the tariffs and counter-tariffs, which hurt workers on both sides of the border as factories close and consumer prices skyrocket.

The Liberals are likely to win the election. Is it because they have better solutions than the Tories? Not a chance, on the key points they are the same. Many people support the technocrat banker Carney because they think he can lead a fight against Trump better than the career politician Poilievre. And for others it is because Carney is the “lesser evil” to Trump’s man, Poilievre. At the same time, a large section of Canadian workers had already shifted support to the Tories in reaction to the liberal “wokism” that accompanied economic devastation during the Trudeau years. But both “Team Canada” candidates will bow to Trump to protect the interests of big business.

Carney and Poilievre claim they can build a “resilient” Canadian economy that is “independent” of the U.S. But the Canadian capitalists are incapable of resisting the U.S., not least because they depend on it for nearly 80 percent of all exports. All the talk of trade “diversification” can’t mask this reality. (See our article “Canadian Capitalism Will Cave,” 6 February.)

Their promises to build big—from infrastructure projects to strengthen the waning economy, to homes to ease the housing crisis—rest on bankrupt foundations. Carney’s “spend less and invest more strategy” will pump billions of dollars of borrowed money into the private sector, while making cuts to public services, increasing inflation and driving down the standard of living. Poilievre’s “axe the taxes” strategy will fuel corporate profits to increase capital “competitiveness.” And neither can repel Trump’s stranglehold on Canada. The U.S. will demand concessions which will be paid for off the backs of workers.

What about the Bloc Québécois and NDP? Bloc leader Blanchet is correct when he says that Ottawa will throw Quebec’s interests under the bus. Yet he says the Bloc will defend Quebec … in alliance with the rulers in Ottawa. The NDP claims they will fight corporate greed and increase public services. Yet to defend workers, Singh promises to hold the Liberals in check … which is an implicit endorsement of the Liberals against the Tories. Don’t be deceived!

What is needed is an opposition to Trump AND Team Canada “national unity.” Only the workers can stand up to Trump and his Canadian lackeys. But there isn’t such an opposition, which shows the weakness and disorientation of the left and labour movement.

In what are frankly irrelevant elections, we advise the working class not to waste its vote on these parties, who will betray. The best thing for those who want to fight for workers’ interests is to combat the “national unity” mania and prepare workers for their own defense. If the Revolutionary Communist Party, which constantly boasts that they are the “biggest Marxist group in Canada” had some revolutionary guts, they would run a campaign for this. We proposed they do so, but they refused. Instead, they are stuck on the sidelines with abstract sloganeering that does not challenge the hold of the misleaders. The Communist Party of Canada is presenting candidates, but without a class-struggle perspective. They offer no opposition to counter-tariffs nor to the “national unity,” the central obstacles for mobilizing an opposition against the ruling class.

The Liberals and Tories are blackmailing the population, saying prepare for poverty to prevent annexation, seeding the ground for austerity and attacks. The union leaders have lined up behind the bosses’ parties and Team Canada, in a total betrayal of workers’ interests. There is no supportable campaign in these elections and the working class is weak and divided. It is urgently necessary to unite workers on a strategy to stand up to the coming onslaught. We say to Canadian and Québécois workers, prepare a joint response directly with American and Mexican workers to fight Trump’s tariffs and coercion. Send delegations across the border to organize a North American conference of unions around a class-struggle perspective. Fight on the following basis:

• No to Team Canada. The bosses will cave to Trump. Only the workers can fight!
• Down with U.S. and Canadian imperialism. Hands off Mexico! For Quebec independence! Defend China!
• Oppose tariffs, counter-tariffs and the “free trade” USMCA. Fight for a working-class anti-imperialist alliance!
• Not one penny for the imperialist military. Down with NATO/NORAD! Stop arms shipments to Ukraine and Israel!
• Union and NDP tops are bootlickers of the Liberals. Forge a class-struggle leadership of the unions and a real workers party!